Family rallies round Aitken's secret Khashoggi love child

The Mother of disgraced former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken last night expressed her great joy at the news that her family had a new and unexpected member: an 18-year-old model who DNA tests prove is Aitken's daughter.

Aitken - who is facing a criminal trial for perjury - learnt that he is definitely the father of close family friend Petrina Khashoggi only a month ago. Her mother, Soraya, had a well-publicised affair with Aitken before he married his wife in the late Seventies.

Speaking from her Westminster home yesterday,Lady Aitken said she was delighted to have a new grand-daughter.It is a very happy story indeed. We see her quite frequently and we are all very happy, she said.

Petrina is a close friend of Aitken's twin daughters Alexendra and Victoria, who are also 18.

Lady Aitken added: "I've suspected the link for some time now. The likeness between Petrina and the twins is striking. She looks like her two sisters, although she is a bit older.

The link completes a bizarre and uncomfortable family circle for Aitken. Petrina's mother was once married to Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, whose sister was the first wife of Moha

med al-Fayed whose revelations about clandestine meetings in the Paris Ritz were the beginning of Aitken's downfall.

According to Lady Aitken, Petrina - who worked for the Storm model agency - has been confused about her family background for years. She uses the surname Khashoggi, even though millionaire Adnan divorced her mother seven years before she was born.

Like any child in that situation, she spent years looking for her father, she said.

Last November both she and Aitken underwent DNA tests which proved what had been suspected for years. A friend told the Daily Mail yesterday: "It came as a great shock to Petrina but Jonathan is very pleased. He said she can take his name if she wants.

"His daughters have been telling everyone they have a new sister. But the Khashoggis are not so happy. They are upset and Petrina is very confused.

Soraya - originally Sandra Daley from Leicester - was propelled to fame when she married Khashoggi in the Sixties. It has been said that she received £20 million as a divorce settlement but she now lives in a modest terraced house in Berkshire. She was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Aitken's new daughter must have been conceived only months before his twins. He has now divorced his wife, Lolicia, who fell out with him following his ill-fated libel action against The Guardian.

It is believed that Aitken decided to take the DNA tests following the divorce last August. Once the results of the test were known there was a family celebration as Petrina was welcomed into the family. After spending Christmas with her mother, Petrina returned to London for the remainder of the festive season with her new family.

Aitken, a former chief secretary to the Treasury and minister for Defence Procurement, will stand trial shortly on charges relating to the collapse of his libel action against The Guardian and Granada Television's World in Action.

One of the allegations is that he drafted a witness statement in his daughter Victoria's name which portrayed a false version of events.

His former business associate, Said Ayas, also faces charges relating to the collapse of the libel trial. Petrina has worked as a model since leaving the Surrey public school Heathfield. She is still recovering from a motorcycle accident in which she broke her pelvis. She has refused to comment about her new family.